A/n: Eeps, I've been busy and kind of forgot about posting a new chapter! Then again, I'm not entirely sure anyone is actually reading, so, if you are, drop me a line! ;) Anyways, I will try to get back on the posting wagon here. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

When Jack first arrived in the ER, it seemed like total chaos. After a quick moment of observation, however, he realized it was more just his unfamiliarity with the staff and processes at Seattle Grace that made things seem so chaotic. There were several residents, all with a few interns each, getting assignments from a tall curvy woman with dark hair and pretty eyes. Various other doctors and nurses were taking incoming patients to trauma rooms, while other groups rushed out to meet the paramedics at the Emergency bay doors.

"You Jack Shephard?"

The dark haired woman called and Jack turned. "I am, whaddya got?"

"Callie Torres, Chief Resident," she said and thrust a chart into his hands. "Multiple vehicle accident, injuries all over the board. You take Trauma 2 – Wendy Dunbar, 25 years old, 34 weeks pregnant. She's got a piece of the steering column right through her – looks like it missed the baby, but it's crushing her spine and she'll need surgery immediately. Nothing like being thrown in the deep end on your first day, huh?" She finished with a small smile and directed him to trauma room 2.

Jack nodded and once he was in the trauma room, he flew into action. The pregnant woman was crying heavily, strapped down to a backboard and had a brace secured around her neck to keep her from moving. Jack set to work examining her while another doctor swiftly tended to the superficial wounds on Wendy's limbs and face.

"Wendy, I'm Dr. Shephard," he said as he flashed a light from one of her blue eyes to the other, ensuring they were equal and reactive.

Good, he thought. No serious head trauma.

He briefly looked over the metal coming out of her stomach before moving down to her feet. "We're going to take good care of you. Can you wiggle your toes for me?"

"I'm not sure if I…" the blonde woman's voice quivered and tears rolled down the sides of her face. "They're wiggling, right?"

Jack noted grimly that they weren't moving whatsoever. "Alright now, Wendy, I need you to tell me if you can feel this?"

He did the pin prick test next, poking a pin into her toes, then the tops and bottoms of her feet.

"Feel what? Have you done it yet?" She answered shrilly.

Jack prodded her ankles, shins and calves. "How about this, Wendy? Tell me if you can feel this."

"I don't – I don't think so. What does that mean?" she cried. "Does that mean I'm paralyzed? Oh God I can't be paralyzed!"

"Wendy, I need you to calm down, okay? It's going to be alright." Jack said soothingly as he reached her knees. "I just need you to relax as much as you can and tell me if you can feel this."

Wendy's lips trembled as she closed her eyes briefly. A second later, she opened them and replied, "I think so… kind of. Are you – something is pinching or poking by my, uh, my knee. Above my… right knee."

Jack nodded. "Good – that's good, Wendy."

As he was checking Wendy, the red-headed doctor he'd run into a couple times that day joined him. She was the Head of Neonatal, he quickly learned, and though she'd seemed oddly nervous or uneasy in his presence before, she hardly seemed to notice him now that they were working.

"Should I page Dr. Shepherd?" asked the resident when the red-head, Dr. Montgomery, had arrived.

Jack glanced up, about to say he was already present but she swiftly answered, "He's tied up with a pair of severe head traumas. Dr. Shephard," she gestured briefly to Jack. "And I will take care of this."

While Jack checked for sensation in Wendy's legs, Dr. Montgomery immediately began doing an ultrasound to ensure the baby was indeed unharmed by the chunk of steering column currently sticking out of the woman. Jack moved beside Dr. Montgomery and noted that the baby seemed alright for now, but they had to get it out at once.

"Baby's heart rate is up," she murmured. "The metal caused her water to break prematurely. We'll need to get her into surgery right now."

Jack agreed with her assessment and switched places with Dr. Montgomery so he could use the ultrasound machine to get a better look at what the steering column piece was doing to Wendy's spine and internal organs. Dr. Montgomery turned to the first-year resident in the room with them.

"Dr. Grey," she said. "Book an OR. We need to take this woman straight into surgery." After the resident hurried out with a couple interns to find an open OR, Dr. Montgomery faced Jack again.

"It's hit her spine," he shook his head slightly. "The rod is crushing her laminae and putting pressure on her spine. I'll have to do an emergency laminectomy as soon as you've handled the baby."

She nodded. "I'll need to do a C-section right away and get that baby out of there."

They both moved forward to where Wendy's head was strapped down. Dr. Montgomery went around to the other side and in a calm voice, explained to Wendy what was going on and what needed to happen next, while Jack continued using the ultra sound machine to check for further injuries.

Jack admired the efficiency with which the staff at Seattle Grace functioned. It wasn't too long before he and Dr. Montgomery had scrubbed in and were operating. He and the resident from before, Dr. Meredith Grey, worked to remove the section of steering column. Dr. Montgomery and an intern, George O'Malley, monitored the baby and prepared to perform C-section.

As Jack and Dr. Grey were attempting to assess the damage done to Wendy's spine and internal organs, the fetal heart monitor began beeping rapidly.

"BP's dropping – we have to get the baby out right away," Dr. Montgomery said.

She and Dr. O'Malley worked swiftly to deliver the baby while Jack and Dr. Grey moved out of the way. Roughly forty or so minutes into the surgery, the baby was delivered and Jack could see Dr. Montgomery smiling under her surgical mask. She passed the baby to O'Malley who placed her in a warmer.

"Nice job," commented Jack.

"All in a day's work," said Dr. Montgomery. She joined O'Malley by the warmer and proceeded to tend to the baby.

Jack couldn't help but note how different this woman was than the one he'd met in the elevator and the locker room that day. This woman was strong and confident, professional and quick under pressure. He already admired her skills and the way she'd expertly delivered that baby. He glanced up from his work and thought that if all the doctors at Seattle Grace were as skilled as she was, it was certainly going to be a great place to work.

He returned his focus to the task at hand and proceeded to fully extricate the chunk of metal.

Addison turned on the scrub room faucet with her elbow and began washing her arms and hands. Jack joined her.

"That was very impressive in there," he commented a moment later.

"Thanks," she replied. "You weren't so bad yourself. Pretty good first day, I'd say."

"Pretty good first day." Jack agreed.

As it fell quiet between them, Addison inevitably thought of her previous encounters with Jack that day and felt an embarrassed blush start to creep across her features again.

This is ridiculous, she thought. She didn't want to constantly have this feeling every time she saw him.

"Just so you know," she piped up. "I have an evil twin that runs around making awkward conversations in elevators and locker rooms. So if you see her, just pretend it never happened."

Jack laughed. "That was you, wasn't it?"

"My twin. Definitely my evil – well, more awkward than evil – twin." She smiled and dried her hands. "Basically I'd really like to just skip the part where I made a total fool of myself – twice – and start over. Or start properly, whatever you want to call it." She held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Addison Montgomery."

Jack dried his hands on some paper towel and then grasped her hand firmly, eyes twinkling as he played along. "Jack Shephard. Nice to meet you, Addison." He headed for the door but turned back and added, "I'll keep an eye out for that awkward twin of yours. Maybe avoid the elevators. And locker rooms."

Addison laughed – her real laugh this time, not that horrid forced one she seemed to be doing lately – and he grinned as he exited the scrub room. From that moment, she knew there was no longer any doubt: she liked him. She already liked his close cropped dark hair, his wide smile and his brown-green eyes. She liked his lips too…

She gave herself a little shake before her imagination went any further. No way was she starting another complicated relationship at this hospital. If she was being honest with herself, she still thought far too much about Mark (she missed a lot of things about him, if not everything about him), about Derek (she still missed him some days too – they'd been married for 11 years, after all)or even about her very brief fling with Karev (alright, so she really only missed the hot sex, but still). There was no way she should be adding Jack to that list.

Not to mention the fact that it was barely his first day. She'd only spent a few hours in the OR with him, that didn't mean she knew him well, or if he had a girlfriend. Besides, she reminded herself, what good would it do to get involved right before she left for LA?

Jack was quite exhausted when he arrived at his apartment late that night. After Wendy's surgery, he'd had two more, as well as an assist on a man with a severed arm that needed reattaching, and then countless minor sutures and bandaging in between surgeries. It'd been an extremely full day but he felt satisfied with the work he'd done and thought he'd made a good impression.

The best part was that though one or two people had commented that Jack looked familiar, no one had specifically recognized him. That was a relief so huge he almost felt doubly exhausted as a result. The rescue of the Oceanic survivors of course had been extremely publicized all over the world, but it had been more than four months ago, and there had been many survivors. The national attention span was short, however, and within weeks, Jack was fairly certain the majority of people had moved on and forgotten about them.

In LA however, where several of the survivors resided, they became tabloid fodder, especially when Kate was arrested for her previous crimes. Even months later, Jack found he got recognized or photographed often, or stopped by paparazzi and random passer-bys to be questioned about "what really happened" to him and the others. The survivors opted to keep the details about what exactly happened sparse, as they all simply wanted to move on with their lives. Naturally, this had only made the press dog them more for the "real story". He kept hoping that they would give up and find someone else to bother, but when Kate escaped, he apparently became interesting all over again.

Coming to Seattle, he'd feared being followed by the paparazzi who had hounded him for stories in LA and figured it was only a matter of time before they found him in Seattle. He'd also feared that when he arrived at the hospital, people would recognize him as one of the Oceanic survivors and want to talk to him about his experiences.

And truthfully, it wasn't that he refused to explain what had happened, but he'd had enough trouble trying to move on, he didn't need to be constantly rehashing the past. Close friends or family had been given a slightly more detailed account of things, but he didn't think the rest of the world and the press needed to know. Besides, there were a lot of things that happened on the island that he was particularly reluctant to discuss or be forced to remember. He rubbed his eyes, clearing away memories of burying Libby and Ana, of Charlie not coming back from the underwater station, of Boone on that makeshift table, bloody and struggling to speak…

With a heavy sigh, he settled at his desk and opened his laptop, looking for a distraction to pull his mind away from his memories. Out of habit, he opened up several tabs in his internet browser and brought up various news related sites. He scanned the top headlines of the day and didn't see anything about the fugitive Kate Austen being captured once again. He exhaled and closed his computer again.

Jack retrieved a beer from the fridge, settled onto his new leather couch and turned on his TV. He browsed aimlessly before choosing some older movie he'd never heard of and fell asleep before it was over.

A/n: Thanks for reading! Reviews are grand, even if they're small. ;)